Sorry. I could help myself. Little puns roll of the keyboard. This is about the connections between the Little, Rooker, Sadler, Barrus, Wilson, (and Ames) families.
I was up to Mt. Pleasant cleaning four stones of the Little family. These caught my eye as they are all of the same type and seem to have been made at one time, even if the people below died in different years. I had never run across the Little name and wanted to do a bit of digging. Whoever had the stones made was nice enough to add the wives maiden names, and this always helps kick start the research.
Lyman and Jerusha stone before and after cleaning.
Lyman Little was born in Conway Massachusetts in 1815 and married Jerusha Sadler there. She was listed as being born in Stockbridge, Mass. They are in Port Byron by the 1850 where we find Lyman listed as a boatman on the Erie Canal. It might be that the Little and Sadler families moved together as many of the Sadler men were also boatmen. As it often happens many of these men start out as boatmen and then shift to other work. Lyman is found as a stone mason in later censuses.
Lyman and Jerusha had two children; Charles and Hattie. Charles married Harriett Edgerly. Harriett was the one who started me to really dig as I found her and her sister living with the Rooker family in Whitehall, NY in 1850. I did not have Harriett in my Rooker branch of the PBFT so I asked Joyce Biss if she might know who she was. It turns out that Harriett and Mary were the daughters of Alva and Electia (Rooker) Edgerly. We don’t know much about Alva and Electia but we do know that Harriett moved with some of the Rookers to Port Byron and we find her living with the Little family in 1860 as a tailoress. Charles and Harriett were not married yet as we see them with their own names. But they do marry by 1861 as that is when their son Charles is born.
Charles and Harriett stone before and after.
And although it is not a direct connection, Electia was the sister of Eleanor Rooker who married Aaron Wilson. This gives us another Wilson branch to play with.
People might recognize the Sadler name. David Sadler ran the omnibus (stage) between Port Byron and Auburn and later up to the railroad stations. David also creates a connection to someone in the PBFT, that being the Barrus family. David married Lucinda Barrus, whose brother was John Barrus. John and his wife Sarah (Randall) were the parents of Clara Barrus the author.
There is another Sadler connection in this tree. Charles and Harriett had a son named Elijah Ames. In the PBFT there is a Elijah Ames who married Nancy Sadler. She would be the sister to Jerusha. Elijah and Nancy moved to Tecumseh, Michigan in the mid 1800s. Apparently the Little family thought enough of Elijah to name their son after him. Elijah Ames Little became an accomplished builder and has projects all of the country. He died in 1926.
Harriett remains a bit of a mystery. After Charles died in 1874, she seems to live their daughter Lillian. Lillian had married someone named Ferrell and I cannot find his first name. In fact he doesn’t even have a place on her stone. Lillian is seen as a widower living with her mother.
In Harriett’s obit, it says that she was Harriett Seymour, but never gives his name. In the 1900 census we can find Harriett as a Seymour and daughter Lillian, living with Lyman and it notes that both women were married. In 1910 Harriett is listed as Little and as a widow and Lillian is married. But still no husbands. I did a survey and Harriett is listed as Little in the 1910 and 1915 censuses, and as Seymour in the 1900, 1905, and 1925 censuses. Dawn Roe suggested that Harriett’s husband may have been John H Seymour, although they never appear in the census together. The only link is that she does file a claim for his war pension shortly after his death in 1921. John was the son of David and Jane Seymour. Maybe they married for a legal reason? So she could get his pension? So he would get a larger pension? Someone would need to pull his civil war records to see what that might offer.